Join­ing the Pony Club

Q My daugh­ter has been rid­ing at a lo­cal rid­ing school for about two years and is keen to join the Pony Club, but I’m not sure what it in­volves. What are the ben­e­fits of join­ing The Pony Club?

AWendy

Find­lay says: The Pony Club is great for mak­ing friends and im­prov­ing rid­ing skills while hav­ing fun. It is also very use­ful for learn­ing sta­ble man­age­ment, prac­ti­cal care and the­ory. There are all sorts of ac­tiv­i­ties: show jump­ing, dres­sage, cross-coun­try, games, polocrosse, tetrathlon and even pony rac­ing. The lifeblood of the pony club is through work­ing ral­lies and the an­nual pony club camp, where chil­dren of sim­i­lar age/stage are taught in groups by qual­i­fied in­struc­tors and can work to­wards Pony Club tests in horse­man­ship and horse care. The more com­pet­i­tive may aim for pony club teams and the chance to com­pete at the an­nual Pony Club Cham­pi­onships, against branches from all over the UK. There is no need to have an ex­pen­sive show pony – in fact, the best pony club ponies are usu­ally or­di­nary look­ing ponies that can do a bit of ev­ery­thing.

Reg­u­lar pony club branches re­quire you to own/ bor­row a pony, but if you don’t have a pony, a rid­ing school based Pony Club Cen­tre can of­fer the ben­e­fits of pony club us­ing rid­ing school ponies.

The Pony Club is run by vol­un­teers and so re­lies on par­ents be­ing in­volved and help­ing out (putting up jumps, fence judg­ing, do­ing teas etc), but this just adds to the fun and sense of ca­ma­raderie. Do en­cour­age your child to join Pony Club, it is well worth it!